Education Scotland Inspection Report

Cedars School of Excellence has recently undergone a QUIPE inspection undertaken by Education Scotland. We were visited on the 7th and 8th May 2012 by two inspectors. The purpose of their inspection was to review the work of the school and offer their opinion as to the ability of the school to self-evaluate our work and to continue to improve our school.

We were very pleased with the report on our school which highlighted the following strengths:

• The staff are clearly committed to ensuring that the children and young people receive a high quality of experience at Cedars School
• That staff know the children very well and discuss their achievements and progress on an ongoing basis.
• That children are progressing in their learning.
• Young people in the senior school are gaining success in a range of National Qualifications.
• Children's successes are shared and celebrated well in many ways.
• That children's learning is enhanced and extended through visits out of school.
• Children achieve well through a high-quality range of musical inputs.
• Residential trips help to develop children's confidence and independence.
• That an afternoon of PE supports children's Health and Wellbeing.
• Children engage very well with their learning.
• Children work well together in pairs and small groups.
• That children respond very effectively to high levels of questioning and discussion.
• There is high quality teaching and learning across the school.
• Children and staff make excellent use of information and communications technology.
• Information technology is used to enrich and enliven teaching and learning.
• Children are highly skilled in the use of tablet computers to support and demonstrate their learning.
• Staff make highly effective use of the Internet and apps to make learning exciting, relevant and varied.
• That our iPad 1:1 deployment supports learning at home and at school.
• From Primary 1 upwards, children use email to share news, stories and images.
• Excellent use is made of blogs to extend learning between home and school.
• Children feel exceptionally well supported by staff.
• High levels of tailored support are provided through individual and small-group teaching.
• Children feel that staff are very kind, caring and committed to helping them do their best.
• Relationships between staff and children are very positive.
• Children feel safe and secure at school.
• Children are confident that, if they have any concerns, they will be acted on.
• Staff take effective steps to meet the needs of children requiring additional support in their learning.
• Children are positive about the help from staff when they require additional support.
• Children are positive about how technology is used to meet their needs effectively.
• The curriculum helps and supports children to achieve the aims of the school well.
• Staff are increasing their confidence in using Curriculum for Excellence.
• Children benefit from a range of experiences which cover almost all curricular areas.
• Staff are exploring extending course choice in senior school.
• Staff are exploring broadening course choice through the use of online learning.
• Staff are clearly committed to continuous improvement.
• Staff are proactive in seeking new and innovative ways of making learning more engaging and exciting.
• Staff are proactive in broadening the curricular experience.
• Staff evaluate the work of the school in a number of ways.
• The head teacher has developed an ambitious three-year improvement plan to progress many aspects of the school work.
• All staff lead on an aspect of school improvement, developing their expertise and taking on responsibility for improvement.
• Many staff contribute to sharing practice and to staff training sessions.
• An appropriate focus is given to continuing staff's professional development.
• The school is very well connected to schools and colleagues nationally and internationally.
• The school continues to develop their highly innovative use of technologies.

The inspectors discussed and agreed with us areas on which we might focus to continue to improve the school. These areas are:

1. To develop a whole-school overview of the curriculum.
2. To improve further approaches to planning and evaluating learning for children with additional support needs.
3. To further develop a more systematic approach to self-evaluation.

The inspectors expressed their confidence that with some support, the school can improve its arrangements and procedures for ensuring continued improvement in the quality of education provided.

As you can imagine, we are very pleased at the recognition that our strengths received and have already started to work on the areas identified in continuing to improve the school. The strengths and areas for improvement which I have outlined to you above use the terminology from the letter provided to us summarising the insperctors' visit.

The full text of the letter is available online.